


The Game Room

by NebulousMistress



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Episode: s03e15 The Game, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-03
Updated: 2017-08-03
Packaged: 2018-12-10 12:53:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,901
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11692032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NebulousMistress/pseuds/NebulousMistress
Summary: Hobbies are necessary for mental health in stressful situations.





	The Game Room

**Author's Note:**

> So [Reaper Miniatures](http://www.reapermini.com/) is having another kickstarter to fund molds so they can make more miniatures. It inspired me.

The game room was an open secret.

None of the scientists objected. They all knew the value of a hobby. If Dr. McKay's hobby was going head to head against their military leader in a game of Ancient Civilization then nobody was going to get in the way. After all, everyone had their hobbies and so long as nobody hurt more than their pride it was all right.

After Ancient Civilization was found to involve actual alien civilizations the game room became public knowledge. The door was closed and locked, or at least ordered shut by Colonel Sheppard with a note of warning taped to it.

But that wasn't the only game room.

It began early in the second year when shipments from the _Daedalus_ began bringing necessary supplies. Luckily there were some like Dr. Lee who knew the meaning of 'necessary'. Small boxes that rattled were whisked off into the lower levels, never to be cataloged by the requisitions officer. Personal supplies Lorne didn't remember ordering kept showing up at his doorstep only to disappear in the hallway before his shift ended.

Lorne never reported them. After all, he didn't work with acrylics. He figured someone too embarrassed to admit to their hobby was using him as a drop point.

It wasn't until the fourth year that someone dared to ask.

“So I heard something about a game room?” Colonel Carter asked after a staff meeting. It was early in her tenure and she'd just gotten settled in.

McKay grumbled, packed up his laptop, and left.

Carter looked around the conference room. That was weird, McKay never acted like that to her unless he knew he'd done something wrong.

“Elizabeth shut it down,” Sheppard said, rubbing the back of his neck. He tried to hide the guilty look on his face. “After the incident on M4D-058.”

Carter had the feeling she was missing something. “Ancient Warcraft,” she said, recalling the name Dr. Lee had for the incident. “But why shut down the game room?”

Now Sheppard had the feeling he was missing something. “Because other people heard about it and started messing with other planets,” he said.

Carter nodded. “Of course,” she said. She didn't get it. What did the game room have to do with alien civilizations?

Later that day she found a suspicious package sitting outside Major Lorne's quarters. She looked around before kneeling down and peeling the tape off.

A smug grin spread over her face. She **knew** the game room wasn't shut down. It was here, somewhere.

She'd find it soon enough.

*****

“Why was she asking about the game room?” McKay muttered as he paced.

It was his own room and therefore lacking in floor space. The bed took up too much room for easy pacing, there was stuff on the floor, the desk stuck out just enough for careless toe-stubbing, Sheppard was standing by the door in that easy slouch of his that said he was on-edge.

“I don't know, Rodney,” Sheppard said. “Why don't you ask her?”

“You don't think...” McKay trailed off. That couldn't be it, the SGC and the Milky Way combined had just spent a decade pounding any megalomania out of Colonel Carter. “Surely she doesn't want to play the game.”

“You know her better than I do,” Sheppard said.

“I thought I did and then she goes and asks about the game room,” McKay said. “She probably just wants to hold it over my head, I swear, she...” Actually, no, she hadn't teased him about his failures, not Project Arcturus, not losing Elizabeth, not even his name. But what if she started?

“I doubt that,” Sheppard said.

“Maybe she thought Elizabeth wasn't strict enough?” McKay asked. “I mean, she did just yell at us. And we'd been messing with those cultures for a long time.”

Sheppard winced. “I think I'd rather believe she wants to play god for a world of her own Sims,” he said.

“So what do we do?” McKay asked.

“I'll post a guard,” Sheppard said. “Make sure no one enters that game room.”

*****

Colonel Carter found the room sealed by gene carrier, the note taped to the door. She read the note.

'Warning: Contains Ancient Civilization Game Played Using Real Civilizations. All Entry Requires Sociologist Supervision.'

She didn't know Atlantis had sociologists. McKay had left that part out of the science department rundown.

Nobody was here. She checked her list for the next 'locked door with strange note' listed in her files. This next one appeared to be related to deadly hallucinogenic nanites.

This one was just as strange, perhaps more so. 'Warning: Nanite Lab. No Entry Upon Pain of Ghosts, Flying Skulls, Grabby Hands, and Death.'

Why not just say 'death'? Although death was a fairly common warning on many of these notes. Thus far she'd found one that threatened both 'seeing your colleague's sexual fantasies' and death, one that threatened melting and death, one that threatened colorblindness and death, another de-aging and death, and one that claimed the room contained bottled shoggoths, whatever that meant. Unless it really was a room full of shoggoths in bottles, she'd have to talk to McKay about that one. It sounded interesting.

But she hadn't found the game room yet.

She turned down one corridor marked as a dead end on her map. At the end of that corridor stood a couple of guards next to a room that wasn't on her map at all. She waved and they saluted her.

“What's this?” she asked.

“Sheppard ordered us to keep you out,” one said.

“No idea why,” the other said. “It's just the game room.”

“Let me guess, strip poker?” Carter said. “You know, I don't care if there's naked or gambling, right?”

One looked relieved. “Good to know, ma'am.”

“But we're still supposed to keep you out,” the other said.

“Gentlemen, I'm relieving you of duty,” Carter said. “Take the day off. Go tell Sheppard. After all, it's just the game room.”

“Yes, ma'am.” They left.

Carter walked in and sighed with a smile as she looked around. Dr. Lee clearly knew what he was doing.

*****

“What?!” Sheppard demanded.

The mess hall went quiet as Sheppard started shouting into his radio, berating two privates for leaving their posts when ordered to. McKay paused in the middle of his lunch and pushed the tray away. Ronon took advantage, taking the still-wrapped blue jell-o off of the tray as though it had been freely offered. He unwrapped it and began licking it.

“What is wrong, John?” Teyla asked.

“I **told** them to keep Colonel Carter out of the game room,” Sheppard growled after he stopped shouting.

Ronon and Teyla looked at each other in confusion then back at Sheppard. “Something wrong with the game room?” Ronon asked between licks.

“It's locked for a reason,” Sheppard snapped. “Am I the only one who remembers this?!”

“You sure it's locked?” Ronon asked.

McKay finally noticed the theft. “Hey, give that...” he trailed off as Ronon gave the jell-o a particularly long lick. “Never mind, you can have it.”

Ronon smirked.

“C'mon, McKay, we need to check out the game room,” Sheppard said.

McKay sighed and left the remains of his lunch at the table. Ronon slid the tray over and began to pick at the remains.

*****

Strange, the game room's lock was intact. The note was still there. It still gave proper warning about the contents of the room.

“Do we even have a sociologist?” Sheppard asked.

“Somewhere,” McKay said dismissively. “She's not here.”

“I had them guarding the game room,” Sheppard insisted. “They were stationed here. They said she went in.”

“Carter's not a gene carrier,” McKay said, thinking. “Did you assign gene carriers?”

“What?” Sheppard asked.

McKay glared at him. “It's a simple question. Did you assign gene carriers to guard the game room?”

Sheppard thought about it. “I have no idea,” he admitted.

McKay growled. He stopped and went quiet when Sheppard fixed him with a glare.

“Well?” Sheppard demanded.

“Well if she's not here then obviously there's more than one game room on Atlantis,” McKay snapped. Then he realized what he'd just said. “Oh crap, there's more than one game room. What if there's more than one game?”

Sheppard tapped his radio and brought up one of the guards he'd chewed out earlier. “I need to know which game room you were guarding,” he said. “Yes there's more than one! Which one?! Where is it? Thanks.” Then he turned to McKay. “I know where the second game room is."

The second game room was in the North-East Pier at the false end of a corridor. The maps didn't show the room but it was there with plenty of space for storage, for tables, for games. Just how many games of Ancient Civilization were there on Atlantis?

They found the room and...

“Huh,” McKay said.

This was... not what they expected.

It was a game room. But it wasn't an Ancient game room.

There were shelves along one wall packed with books, cases, board game boxes, and a whole shelf of little painted miniatures. A table was surrounded by people as Carter stood on one end with a tape measure, a stack of cards, and a fist full of dice. Dr. Rowan stood at the other end deep in thought as he looked down at the table between them. The table was covered in little animal-headed figures with spears and swords in formations.

Carter smirked as she leaned back. Rowan huffed as he used his own tape measure to try and gauge movements, apparently trying to get himself out of whatever trap Carter's little army men had sprung.

“It's a game room,” McKay said. He looked over to see Sheppard leaning over the shelf of painted miniatures. “Really?”

“They have little tanks,” Sheppard said. “Who paints these? Who makes these? Why don't they have any--” He was about to complain about the lack of planes when he saw what lurked on the next shelf over. “Why would you put skulls on a jet?”

Carter rolled dice and moved figures before Rowan swore and she accepted his handshake. Then she looked up to see Sheppard ogling the miniatures and McKay looking uncomfortable. She waved and went over to them. “So why did you want to keep me out of the game room?” she asked. “Afraid I'd get in the way of Dungeons and Dragons?”

“How do you paint eyebrows on a guy who's half an inch tall?” Sheppard mused aloud.

“So will you be joining our D&D group?” Rowan asked. “We've got room. Dr. Tomson cam paint you a mini if you don't see anything you like in the case.”

“I'm sure I'll find something suitable,” Carter said. “Level 6, right?”

“Yep, everyone's at level 6,” Rowan said. “Sorcerer, wizard, bard, and a rogue. They could really use something front-line.”

“I haven't played a barbarian in a while,” Carter said. They walked off to discuss this game they would be playing later.

McKay watched in confusion and not a little bit of awe. He felt a tug on his sleeve and looked down to see Sheppard kneeling in front of the shelves looking at something. “What?” he asked.

“Look, anatomically correct horses,” Sheppard said, grinning and pointing.

McKay sighed and left the game room.

Maybe he'd be back later. He did see a copy of Risk in there...

**Author's Note:**

> I have a [tumblr](http://nebulousmistress.tumblr.com/) where you can find a hundred little fanfics I never posted here. Check it out, drop a line, maybe dare me to write something for you.


End file.
